


Monster Mini Golf

by DoulaMom



Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M, arcade games, miniature golf
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-12
Updated: 2016-10-12
Packaged: 2018-08-14 17:37:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8022997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoulaMom/pseuds/DoulaMom
Summary: Mulder takes Scully to play Arcade Games and Mini Golf for her Birthday.





	1. Birthday Date

April 23, 1999

Scully sat blindfolded in the passenger seat of Mulder’s Ford Taurus. She knew they were driving north, only because she’d seen Mulder get on I-495N before he tossed her a black silk scarf, claiming their destination was a surprise. She sincerely hoped this wasn’t another wild goose(or ufo in their case) chase to the middle of nowhere. She’d had high hopes for relaxing this weekend after the stress of the Padgett case, and the uncertain mood it had put them both in. They hadn’t yet discussed Padgett’s jailhouse revelation of Scully’s feelings, and she felt embarrassed and uneasy about the consequences that conversation might bring. Mulder had left early from work, claiming a doctor’s appointment, but when she’d returned to her apartment, he’d left a strangely cryptic request to meet him outside at 6:30 that evening, saying they needed to meet an informant. He’d requested that she dress casually, and promised to buy her dinner afterward, so she reluctantly acquiesced, foregoing the long, hot bath and wine she’d previously planned.

When he drove up, he was wearing jeans and a black t-shirt, and had thrown his leather jacket in the backseat, leaving her feeling much better about her outfit. At least she wasn’t underdressed. The weather had been fairly warm in DC lately, but the evenings were still cool, so she had brought along a jacket as well. She couldn’t help the rush of heat that flooded through her as she took in his muscled chest in the t-shirt, and his gentle, maybe hopeful grin. She slid in next to him, and as they pulled away from the curb, she decided to broach the subject of their current journey, saying, “Mulder, will you tell me where we’re going, please? Your surprises lately tend to end with us exploring haunted houses or getting ourselves in trouble with the military, so, as a rule, I’m not particularly thrilled to be driving off to God knows where on a Friday evening.”

“Oh, Scully, ye of little faith, ” Mulder smirked, “I always have the most honest of intentions. You’ll just have to trust me.” With that he tossed her a scarf from the backseat, pleading with his eyes for her to humor him once again.

“What? You expect me to wear this? Why? I’m going with you, isn’t that enough?” She questioned, feeling slightly indignant.

“Scully, I just want it to be a surprise, really.” He said, shrugging his shoulders. “We’re not going to meet an informant. I just needed to get you in the car, and I didn’t think you’d come along if I told you exactly where we were going. But I think you’ll like it once we get there.” His adorable lopsided smile melted her frustration, and his confession that their excursion wasn’t work related intrigued her, despite her reservations.

“Ok Mulder, I’ll play along. Just as long as you promise that we’re not crossing more than one state line to our destination.” She said, fingering the smooth silk, her thoughts turning darker, her chest flushing with heat. She folded the scarf, then tied it around her head, making sure to actually cover her eyes because she was sure he would pull off and redo it if she didn’t. She smiled at his gesture, the idea that he genuinely wanted to spend time doing something just with her, and hope bloomed wildly in her heart, her thoughts wandering back to the confusing electric current that always seemed to pulse between them.

“Scully, we won’t even cross one state line. We’re headed somewhere close.” Mulder said, pleased that he had chosen a location close to home.

The conversation stayed fairly light, Scully talking about her plans to spend Sunday with her mother, attending mass and then enjoying lunch with a few of her mother’s friends. Mulder, as usual, planned on spending the rest of the weekend on his couch, and she mused that he’d likely be catching up on watching those videos that weren’t his. It felt weirdly intimate, talking while wearing a blindfold, but she wondered if that was just her subconscious trying to tell her that she’d like this situation to happen somewhere other than a car. She pushed the thought aside, wondering how much further before they reached his mysterious destination. She knew they’d exited the highway at some point, traveling on side streets, stopping once in a while for a red light. She didn’t have to wonder much longer, because after a couple more minutes, the car slowed, made a right turn, stopped once more, and Mulder turned off the engine. She felt her heartbeat increase, the excitement bubbling under her cool exterior.

“Can I take this off yet, Mulder?” She asked, turning toward him and tugging slightly at the knot she’d tied to keep it in place. Suddenly, she felt the cool touch of Mulder’s fingers on her face, and she shivered slightly as he pushed the material up to her forehead, his face inches from hers. She felt sparks surge between them, and his breath hitched when he saw her pupils change, forgetting the fact that she had been in complete darkness moments before.

“We’re here,” Mulder replied, his voice shaking slightly, “I hope you like it.” He smiled, and she felt her heart skip a beat and her stomach flip. She tore her eyes away from his gaze, the one he swore he didn’t have, and took in her surroundings. The days were longer now, in the end of April, and the sun was sinking slowly behind the building, casting the neon lights in an even more brilliant glow.

“Monster Mini Golf? What are we doing here Mulder?” She asked incredulously, completely floored by his choice of establishment.

“Scully, we’re going to play Mini-Golf, of course! And they have an arcade inside that I’ve heard is pretty awesome. I used to go to places like this when I was a kid. Come on, Scully, it’ll be fun. You’re always saying we don’t do anything fun, so I thought it was time for a change. Happy Birthday.” Mulder replied, his tone honest and sincere. He really seemed excited, and his enthusiasm was contagious.

“Mulder, my birthday is in February. It’s April. And you remembered this year, we had cupcakes in that ridiculous diner in Florida. After the sea monster. Remember?” Scully replied, confused, but also excited by the prospect that this might be a date.

“Yeah, I remember,” Mulder countered, “but I wanted to do something special. These places aren’t open in February, so we had to wait until the weather got warmer.”

“What about March?” Scully asked, curious as to how long Mulder had actually been planning this excursion.

“Nah, too many kids off for spring break.” He said casually. He had actually planned this a while back. The sentiment both surprised and thrilled her.

“Wow, you’ve really thought this through Mulder.” She said, smiling.

“Of course I have, Scully. I wanted to do something big for your birthday. It’s the 23rd today.” He said, looking pleased. Scully glanced at her watch, reading the date.

“This is really sweet, Mulder. Thank you.” She said, placing her hand on his. He jumped a little at the contact, and turned to look straight into her eyes.

“You’re welcome Scully, now come on, we’re burning daylight.” He squeezed her hand, and then nearly jumped out of the car, giddy and childlike.

When they walked in the door, they were met with the cacophony of sounds inherent to arcades. The clank of metal coins pouring from the exchange machine, the bells and whistles of the games when someone won, the music blasting from the stereo, and the roar of people, excitedly moving from one game to the next. It felt just like childhood. She remembered spending days like this with her brothers and Melissa, challenging each other at Skee-ball and Pac-Man, and she found herself excited about spending time reliving good moments with Mulder at her side. “Ok, Mulder, you’ve got me. This is fun.” She smiled, taking his hand and dragging him to the machine to get coins. “What do you want to play first?”

“Birthday girl decides that.” He said, grinning.

They fed a twenty dollar bill into the machine, gathering the coins in a little plastic cup someone had left behind, and she steered them toward the racing game.

“I get the red car!” She squealed, hopping into her seat. He took the seat next to her, the blue car, and put two coins into the slot. After selecting their course, they were off, Scully’s calculated driving outpacing Mulder’s recklessness with the wheel when he crashed into a sharp turn and skidded off course. He caught back up with a few precise moves and a speed boost, and they went neck and neck until the very end, when Scully swerved in front of him to pick up the last speed boost and won the race.

“Good race Mulder, I guess my feet are pretty good at reaching these pedals.” She giggled, teasing and flashing him a toothy smile. “Where to next?”

“Let’s do skeeball. I love that one.” He replied, lacing his fingers with hers.

As it turned out, Scully was a master at skeeball as well, her exceptional skills at math allowing her to understand the angles required to hit the goals in the corners, the ones worth 10,000 points. They made their way through basketball, which Mulder dominated, Slap the Spider, where they were equally matched, the duck hunt, again a Scully win, and several rounds of Cyclone, the stop the light game that neither could time just right. Once they exhausted the coins, they took their tickets to the prize counter. They came up with a decently sized number, 635, their skill at chance games surprising them both. As they searched through boxes of tattoos, friendship bracelets and sticky hands, something caught Scully’s eye.

“Oh Mulder, look, up at the top! It’s just like one my father brought me when he returned from one of his long trips.” She smiled fondly, pointing, and Mulder’s eyes caught the white whale hanging proudly at one of the top levels of small prizes.

“We’ll have to get more tickets, that one is 1500.” He said, pulling more money out of his wallet.

“No, Mulder, we don’t have to. I just thought it was cute.” She said, focusing on a ridiculous whistle shaped like a monster.

“Of course we do, Scully, it’s your birthday, and it’s perfect.” Mulder replied adamantly, already off on his way to procure more coins from the dispenser. “I have an idea.”

After filling the cup with more tokens, he pulled Scully along to the Coin Dozer. “I’m actually really good at this one.” He said, chuckling at her raised eyebrow. “My parents used to bowl on Friday nights, and to keep myself busy, I played in the arcade. Samantha was little, so most of the time she just slept in the chairs behind the counter, and my parents would give me a couple dollars, so I had to make the most of it. This game sometimes gives you tokens back so I could play it all night.”

He was a shark. Within ten games, he’d won enough tickets to buy the whale, and a couple of friendship bracelets to go with it. It was perfect.

“Ok, now on to mini golf. There’s two themes, ‘Monsters’ and 'Around the World’, you pick, Scully.”

“I think we have plenty of monsters in everyday life, so let’s go with 'Around the World’”.

The holes were elaborately set up as famous monuments around the World, including the Taj Mahal, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Great Buddha, the Kremlin, Mulder’s Favorite- Oxford University, Scully’s Favorite-The Pyramids of Giza, and of course the Eiffel Tower. The first hole was London’s Big Ben. It was an easy 2 par, but the catch was, once you set your ball into the putting aid, you were on a timer. Scully sailed through quickly, but Mulder struggled under the time crunch, with his propensity to sit and think on things a little too long.

The game went back and forth, as usual, and they enjoyed both the nostalgia of a childhood game, and the giant landmarks made into obstacles for the ball. Mulder came up behind Scully on tricky shots a couple of times, curling around her small frame and offering to help her line up the shot. She would giggle, and lean into his warmth, indulging them both for a few seconds before shooing him away, lest he disturb her accuracy. The excitement that coursed between them felt particularly heavy in this relaxed setting, and Scully wondered if he had known it might seep to the surface once the stress of their job melted away for a few hours. Had he expected their closeness? Did this mean he might want her the way she wanted him? Once, as he was leaning in to help her shot, she turned her head, and their lips brushed for a second before he pulled back. She swore he gasped before backing away. Could this be the push they needed to finally lay their cards on the table? She hoped so.

They made their way through the world’s beautiful monuments to the last hole, the Eiffel Tower. It had a winding path, and there was a sign noting 'In the city of Love, should you make a hole in one, your lover shall reward you with a kiss’. Scully’s heart pounded in her chest. It was ridiculous, clearly a gimmick, but she wanted it nonetheless.

“Hmm, Scully, a kiss. What do you think?” Mulder teased, a blush staining the tips of his ears.

“If it’s a hole in one, you might get lucky Mulder.” She replied, trying to keep her voice steady.

Mulder stepped up to the line, eyeing the tricky course. He hadn’t known about this before, and suddenly the only thing that mattered was sinking that ball into the hole in one putt. He took a deep breath, attempting to calm his shaking hands, and swung. The ball clipped the sides of the guide rails, climbed over the hill and into the speedway. It sunk into the hole with a satisfying clunk, making a flag come out of the tower, flapping in the breeze. He turned to Scully, breathing slightly faster, his palms sweaty. She smiled, stepped close to his body and pressed her lips to his. Warmth rushed through her body, and she opened her lips to taste his mouth fully. He slid his tongue inside just slightly, lingering there just a moment before pulling his lips away. They smiled, the energy crackling as Scully stepped up to take her turn. Invincible on the high from their kiss, she sunk her ball easily with one swing, turned and whispered in his ear, “Does this place have cake to go?”


	2. The long drive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mulder and Scully have a conversation about the events during their game of Mini Golf. Then a tense drive back to Scully's place

“Does this place have cake to go?” I asked, panting slightly from our kiss.

“They do indeed. I dropped it off at the counter when I got here.” Mulder replied, a glint in his eye making my stomach flip. Thankful for his careful preparations for the evening, I smiled and the grin he returned lit a fire underneath my skin. I was more than ready to continue this course in the privacy of one of our apartments.

He grabbed my hand, hastily leading us to the club return window, then making a beeline for the snack counter. The high school kid behind the counter must have remembered Mulder, because as we approached, he waved and walked back through an employees only door. He returned with a box, two forks and some ‘Happy birthday’ napkins. 

Mulder thanked the boy, handing him a tip and taking the box and hurrying us out the door to his car.

As we left the building, I began to doubt the move I had boldly made. Did he truly want what I wanted? Had I crossed a line that he had wanted to stay behind? We’d never talked about the several near misses we’d had since that afternoon in his hallway before that ridiculous bee stung me. It seemed maybe if it had been meant to happen, we wouldn’t have continued to miss. But we had. 

The time when he told me he loved me, after his near fatal cruise on the Queen Anne, he had been on a fairly strong cocktail of medications, and the morning we woke up together in my hotel room after a flying cow destroyed the one he’d been sleeping in, his hand on my breast and hardness pressed against my back could be chalked up to simple proximity. But I couldn’t so easily explain away our latest and closest incident. The evening at the ball field had been magical in a way I thought our lives might never be able to provide. Something so down to earth as knocking a few baseballs into the night sky seemed woefully out of place, but an entirely welcome change in our abnormal routine. So when he pressed me against my car before we walked our separate ways, my body reacted instantly. My head swam and desire poured from me in waves. His lips had moved within millimeters of mine, and I could feel his breath against my face. 

Why didn’t we cross this seemingly impenetrable line then? What stopped either one of us from moving an inch to take what we truly wanted? Unless maybe, he had become swept up in the rare happiness we’d shared and then thought better of it. I didn’t want to misunderstand his intentions with this evening, but I was terrified to speak the words. 

My heart pounded in my chest as we slid into our usual seats in the car. Then tension crackled between us, and my thoughts were as wild as my body. The short kiss Mulder and I shared had awakened something primal within me, and could no longer hold back. I needed to touch him.

“Mulder, thank you for all this. You were right, it was exactly what I needed.” I said, sliding my hand over the center console to brush his thigh. He jerked slightly, raising his head to meet my gaze. I felt as though I was about to jump from a cliff, but I found the courage within to ask the question I desperately needed answered, but when the words came they were barely above a whisper.

“Did you really want those kisses, Mulder? If you felt obligated by the game, I’m sorry, maybe we shouldn’t…” I started, but before I finished my sentence his mouth was covering mine. His lips were warm, and I couldn’t help a moan when his tongue slid inside. 

“God, Scully, I don’t think I’ve ever wanted anything in my life more.” He said against my lips. The need in his voiced spurred me on, and I snaked my hand into his hair and pulled him against me hard. The hunger in the next kiss shocked even me. He nipped at my lips, and cupped the sides of my face with his hands, angling me to kiss me deeper, just the way I like it. It felt as though he could read my mind, and in that instant I knew our connection encompassed every part of us. 

“Mulder…” I breathed, barely controlling the raging lust within, “We need to go now. I don’t want to do this in your car, and I don’t think either of us can wait much longer.”

He growled against my neck, and pulled away abruptly, leaving me aching for more of his touch. He threw the keys into the ignition and almost peeled out of the parking lot. One hand remained on the steering wheel, and one landed on my knee, his fingers burning long lines into my overheated flesh. 

“Your place is closer.” He said, a slight hinting tone in his voice. 

“Yes it is.” I replied, my mind wandering to the many fantasies I’d had of him pressing me against the soft sheets in my bed, crying out my name. I suppressed the moan that threatened to slip out, but a wave of desire crashed through me at the thought that we could very well be fulfilling several of those fantasies within the hour, and a gush of warmth drenched the silk panties I was thankful I’d chosen that day.

Our hands were entirely unable to stay on our own sides, and they trailed along arms, legs, anything within reach. Except for where we both needed them most. We both had the sense to keep from crossing that line, for fear that we wouldn’t make it another minute once we’d let that last defense slip away. 

The old Ford Taurus sped along like a bat out of hell, and more than once I wondered if we might simply careen off into a ditch.

“Mulder, as much as we both want to get there, I’d rather we get there in one piece.” I warned, squeezing his arm gently to bring him back to earth.

“Scully, again, ye of little faith. Trust me when I say I’ve never been more motivated to get us home without incident. You know how I am when I’m focused on a goal.” He joked, throwing me a smirk that I’d seen hundreds of times before. 

What I hadn’t seen until that particular look was the depth in his eyes, the way the corners of his mouth turned up just slightly. The unabashed love blatant in his gaze surprised me, and I realized that he’d never been more serious. He’d never let me down, and we’d been to the ends of the earth. Why did I think he’d falter now?

“You’re right, Mulder. I trust you. Absolutely.” I said, interlocking my fingers with his, content to let the passion between us simmer in that moment. I could wait another twenty minutes to finally hold everything in my arms I’d ever desired.


End file.
